Groundbreaking for long-awaited Hiddenbrooke community park set

The piles of dirt and silent hulking tractors might be unappealing to some, but to former Vallejoan Jim Libien, the sight Friday was one of long-awaited progress.

Libien, standing at the sunny three-acre site folded into the hills of Vallejo, sees a 12-year-old dream of a community park for Hiddenbrooke residents about to become reality.

"It's taken an awful long time to get this done," Libien said. "To me, it's just the key that shows that where there's a will there's a way."

The property was originally set aside for a new elementary school and adjacent park, and the long-time effort to develop it has stalled several times over the years.

The Greater Vallejo Recreation District will manage the park, once it is complete. District General Manager Shane McAffee said GVRD likes to see Vallejo residents have parks in close proximity.

"I think it's got to be as big a relief for residents as much as for us," McAffee said. "We're excited to see it happen."

On Monday morning, however, officials from the city of Vallejo, Greater Vallejo Recreation District, site-owner Vallejo City Unified School District and Solano Land Trust will move forward with a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site. The two-acre park may be completed as early as October.

"This is the first tangible result that we've actually seen," said Libien, who moved to San Rafael from Hiddenbrooke in April. "We think it's a very significant day. Everybody who's involved with it thinks (the groundbreaking is) a very significant day."

As one of the first six homeowners to take up residence in the out of the way development, Libien said he felt he had an obligation to see the project through to the end, even if it will no longer benefit him or his family.

Libien recalled volunteering to oversee an effort to institute a park as "the easy idea." Since then, the Hiddenbrooke neighborhood has changed, Libien said. So, too, have plans for the park -- once-featured bocce ball courts have made room for added playground equipment.

"There are a lot of families out there now with young children. That's not the way it was when we started 10 years ago," Libien said. "(Hiddenbrooke) was thought of it more as a retirement or empty-nester community."

In the years since an original $3 million in new homeowner fees was set aside for the park's development (later paired down to $1.5 million), Libien was a semi-regular face before the Vallejo City Council, pleading for the "political will" to make the park happen.

While the Council could not control several issues related to the park, it did eventually encourage the school district to move forward, manage construction and bring the various parties to the negotiating table. In 2010, former Councilwoman Marti Brown urged the city to step in, noting that several amenities for Hiddenbrooke -- like a school and firehouse -- have not come to fruition, but the park still could.

Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or jyork@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @JYVallejo.